Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

We are working closely with EirGrid at the moment to look, similar to Uisce Éireann, at interim measures. I do not think we are in a position to indicate exactly how much headroom we have. At distribution level, it is not just housing. There is significant demand for everything I have mentioned already. It is the likes of EV charging for industrial and commercial customers. The areas we are most concerned about are north and west Dublin. If you look at our capacity heat map online at distribution level, you can see in the colour coding that we have limited capacity in those areas. The next phase for us with EirGrid is to see what transmission capacity is available and whether we can optimise the operation of the network between distribution and transmission to get more capacity. After that, we will be dealing with customers in accordance with our licence on a first-come, first-served basis.

Mr. Rossiter mentioned things like transformers and the lead time for materials even to be able to deliver interim measures. There is a considerable degree of uncertainty in this regard, and that is why we are encouraging developers to come to us early to talk to us about their requirements and, ideally, have a connection agreement in place before starting construction. Having an electrical connection is the equivalent of having planning permission. We are working extremely hard to find solutions where we can.

To go back to the point on PR6, the situation is very similar to the Uisce Éireann situation. We have major projects concerning both transmission and distribution to be delivered, not only in the Dublin area but also right across the country, and it is critical that they be delivered as quickly as possible.